The Knowledge of the Tree

New York Magazine runs this annotated photograph of Roxy Paine’s soon-to-open work on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Paine wants the work to speak to many things. The notes make it sound very complicated. But then we also get a simple idea:

The artist suggests that his work resonates especially well in an urban setting because viewers are reminded of the vanished natural world around them. As for the Met’s roof garden itself, “I feel that the previous installations haven’t really worked with the scale of the whole space or the shape of the roof itself. I wanted it large enough so that it wouldn’t feel dwarfed.”